Morning journal and courier., 1887-11-26
oIsILDREN's DAY IN NEW YORK.

CHHLDREN'S DAY IN NEW YORK.
Some of Their Ways of Amusing Them
selves and Others ON sunday.
From the Savannah News.l
Sunday is great day for the children of
New York who are not given to its close OBJ
servance as time of rest. Paradise Park
and the streets of the more thickly popula-
ted parts of the city alive with them, but
if you want to gee children having fun in
the widest sense you must go to the upper
end of Manhattan Island, where they have
more room to disport themselves. The small
boys in the neighborhood of One Hundred
and Twenty Seventh street and Eighth ave-
nue. have a spirited sparring club. Two of
them were matched to fight to finish last
Sunday, and crowd was on hand to see the
sights. 1t was gamey encounter. As the
fight progressed friend of one of the COM
batants said:
'Hold on; dat amt cordin' to de Queens
berry rules"
The referee declared that it was. the COM
plainant called him liar, and the referee
proceeded to lick him. The comEatants
then turned their attention from their own
fight to help along the skirmish between the
referee and his enemy. A general riot and
several bloody noses was the result, and
man had to come in and quell the disturb
ance.
A block north of the scene of this diver
sion well-dressed boys were playing marbles,
which game is just now regaining its former
popularity with the boys of the metropolis.
Some girls who had been contemptuously de-
barred from the game went aside and con-
soled themselves by playing jackstones.
This game too ended in war. One girl had
on a new hood. Another, who still wore her
summer hat criticised the hood in an un-
complimentary manner, whereupon the own
er of the hood said:
'I know what ails you. Your ma hain't
got money enough to buy you hood, SO
there!"
The majority of the players took sides
with the wearer of the summer hat, and the
purse proud possessor of the hood was boy
cotted and went home in tears.
Probably the most exciting and novel en-
tertainment was that in which some boys
were participating the corner of One
Hundred and TwentY-Sixth street and St
Nicholas avenue, where high mass of rock
is being blasted. A big derrick worked by
hands stands alongside the rock. The boys
attached the tackle to a fat rock, one of their
number took his seat on it, and then they
hauled him high in air and swung the der
rick around rapidly. It was SO great fun
that each boy clamored for his turn to ride
on the derrick, and begged to be allowed to
remain up in the air for longer period, but
his comrades dropped him to the ground
very suddenly, and there was no appeal from
their action
A vacant lot nearly opposite the derrick
contains a shanty, goat shed and usually a
demure goat. Some young lads use the lot
every Sunday as a football ground. They
were kicking the ball about with great glee
when the goat came out of the shed and Mrs.
Doolan, its owner, came to the door of her
shanty The goat gazed with disapproval on
the bounding ball, then levelled its horns
and went out to meet it. The encounter was
not conducive to the goats peace of mind
and it essayed another attack. The boys by
common consent made the goat the goal of
the game and pelted it with the big ball
til it was knocked over on its side, and Mrs.
DooIan rushed among them to rescue it and
barely escaped being hit herself.
At one point near the end of old Broad
way, where the houses are poor and the
people likewise, some lads were playing
horse. They rigged up an old soap box
on wheels into something like a fire en-
gine A boy at distant point pounded
on tin pan as mimic alarm of fire, and
the portable soap box drawn by feet-foOted